The British (and other Euros) are not coming

Kaymer, McIlroy decide to reject PGA Tour status

Don't look now, but the Ryder Cup may not be the only thing European golf likes to hoard these days. The continent is developing a firmer hold on its top pros, too.

Germany's Martin Kaymer this week became the third European Tour luminary to reveal that he won't seek PGA Tour membership for 2011, even though his PGA Championship title gives him a five-year exemption to the game's richest circuit.

Kaymer's decision, on the eve of the Dubai World Championship, came two weeks after Rory McIlroy announced he would give up his PGA Tour card. Nor does new world No. 1 Lee Westwood hold PGA Tour membership, having given up his ticket after the 2008 season.

That's three of the top 10 in the world rankings, with Kaymer currently third and McIlroy at No. 10.

The wave of new European talent is no surprise; sharp-eyed fans have seen its rise for a few years now. However, getting the stiff-arm from three of its top names surely doesn't rouse holiday cheer at PGA Tour offices.

One giddy Euro journalist, in fact, went so far as to ask Kaymer if he'd received a "crying phone call" from commissioner Tim Finchem.

"Not yet," Kaymer replied. "Maybe I'll get one on Monday."

McIlroy, too, lobbed another dart when he hinted that he might blow off The Players Championship even though it wouldn't count against the three non-major, non-World Golf Championship entries allowed ex-members.

"It would be great to win it one day," McIlroy said, "but it just might not suit my schedule next year."

On the flip side, the PGA Tour will gain the services of U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell and British Open titleholder Louis Oosthuizen, both confirming recently that they'll take up the exemption given to major champions.

Even then, Oosthuizen cautioned that he'll play 2011 as an experiment, to see if he can handle the extended travel.

Clearly, there's also a new wave of thinking that one doesn't need the U.S. tour to thrive.

"I think week-in, week-out there is no doubt the PGA Tour is stronger in depth," said England's Paul Casey, who plans to maintain dual membership. "But there are also seven Europeans in the top 11 of the world rankings. … So the quality of the fields in Europe week-in, week-out is extremely high as well."

The PGA Tour hasn't faced this kind of high-profile opt-out since the mid-1990s, when a tiff over minimum starts prompted such major champions as Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Sandy Lyle to stay in Europe.

In 1994's final world rankings, five of the top 10 weren't PGA Tour members – Faldo, Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal, Colin Montgomerie and Japan's Jumbo Ozaki. Faldo rejoined the tour in 1995; Lyle followed a year later.

"We'd like to hoard all of them for us," former British Open champ Stewart Cink said, "but the fact is not everybody is going to want to play on the PGA Tour if they didn't grow up in the United States of America."